Since cryptocurrency was first discussed by Satoshi Nakamoto, he made it clear that one of the long-term obstacles would be the ability of a blockchain to handle large numbers of transactions simultaneously. In order to remedy this, larger block sizes can be enabled that will allow for a blockchain to be as robust, if not more, than other payment solutions such as Visa or MasterCard. It now appears that Bitcoin Core (BTC) is moving backward, not forward, and is suggesting a reduction in the block size.
This doesn’t appear to be the best solution, as the traffic on the BTC network indicates. While BTC transaction volume has increased, a backlog of transactions to be stored in the Mempool has been created. This could result in longer transaction times, as well as higher fees when conducting BTC payments.
The solution many in the BTC community are looking at is one that would include moving transactions off the blockchain. The issue with this is that off-chain solutions, such as the Lightning Network (LN), remove continuity of data and don’t allow a complete record of all transactions. This will be an issue, as all nodes on the LN have to be online at all times. Additionally, unless some technological advance is made, LN doesn’t support cold-wallet storage.
Satoshi already proved that on-chain scaling was possible and this has been supported by the work done by Bitcoin SV (BSV). The blockchain mined a 103MB block this past January and has consistently shown that 64MB blocks are easily attainable.
The ability to mine a block over 100MB shows that BSV is able to provide a network that rivals all others. It is well on its way to becoming the primary enterprise blockchain. While other blockchain developers believe they need to “reinvent the wheel” and use a live blockchain to play, those molding the BSV network understand that all that is needed is to build upon the original vision of digital currency and allow it to evolve as it was originally intended.
The fact that BTC has once again returned to a congested on-chain network, and is contemplating a reduction in block size, shows exactly why BTC developers are determined to completely lose any resemblance to the original vision of crypto, and why it will continue to run into issues as a viable alternative to fiat.
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